With the publication, last January, of Measure for Measure, edited by A. R. Braunmuller and Robert N. Watson, the Third Series of the Arden Shakespeare was finally complete. There have been several recent offshoots of this imprint, including Arden Early Modern Drama Guides and Arden Student Skills, both of which offer extended critical commentary on individual plays; there are also editions of non-Shakespearian Renaissance plays under the rubric Arden Early Modern Drama. Nonetheless, the core of the enterprise remains the editing of Shakespeare’s plays and poems. Publication of Arden 3 has taken twenty-five years, which compares favorably with the thirty-one for the Second Series (“The New Arden” or Arden 2, 1951—82) and equals that for the original series (Arden 1, 1899—1924, interrupted by the Great War). The general editors for Arden 4 have already been announced, but this is a moment for retrospection, and for celebration of one of the landmark publishing ventures of our time. It also offers a unique perspective from which to examine changes in Shakespeare editing and scholarship as they have been reflected in the Ardens over the last hundred and twenty years.

The first Arden Measure for Measure, edited by H. C. Hart, appeared in 1905, and the second, edited by J. W. Lever, in 1964. Hart, who edited seven volumes in the first series, had been born in 1847 and was by profession a botanist. In one respect his task was easy: no textual expertise was needed for Arden